And they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 24:12
Can you imagine the interviews those masons and ironworkers went through?
Picture it…
Do you have masonry skills? Good. Carpentry expertise? Fine.
But far more importantly — how do you feel about building a house for the Lord?
It’s a higher standard. Are you ready to commit?
For the right masons and carpenters, this was the perfect start to an interview. They likely felt liberated, inspired, and excited to put their skills to use for a worthy cause. This wasn’t just any old house they’d be building — finally, a real challenge with a noble purpose!
And for the people whose values weren’t aligned with the project? You can imagine how quickly they got filtered out. Ask the right questions, and you easily get a sense if people are aligned with your values or not.
What if you got this bold about cultivating your servant leadership culture? You can. Plenty of leaders do. They use their hiring process as a robust filter to ensure that the people they bring on board are 100% aware of, aligned with, and committed to the real work of their workplaces – multiplying servant leaders.
You can more deeply leverage your hiring processes, too. You can bring on board only the people who are right for your company; the people who find joy in serving and supporting others as they fulfill the true purpose of your organization.
Here are three steps you can take to always hire the right people:
Reframe your idea of “the right people.”
There’s a lot of talk about the “war for talent” among organizations. The problem is, when people refer to “talent,” they’re talking only about trade expertise; industry-specific knowledge and know-how.
Smart, innovative people can help you fulfill your business objectives. But if you want to cultivate your culture of servant leadership, what you really need are people who are talented at developing their ability to serve. You need people who are interested in cultivating not just their skills, but their character; not just what they do, but who they are.
To become talented at anything, you’ve got to be passionately interested in it.
For every position in your company, consider – are you employing people who are interested in becoming talented at servant leadership?
If not, why not?
You may need to make changes in order to attract more servant leaders, one of them being…
Be transparent about the expectations of your servant leadership culture.
A couple of months ago, an organization I serve hired a new Director of Human Resources. This organization had invested in developing a culture of servant leadership and has experienced great feedback from their teams and positive business results. They did not want to go backward by making a mistake in hiring such an important role.
The executive leadership team knew that this new hire was critical to keeping the positive cultural change going. To ensure they brought on the right person, they asked their applicants to put together Leadership Portraits; documents containing clear statements about their life purpose, values, and personal Leadership Mount Rushmore; the people who had most influenced their leadership ideals.
In their portraits, the applicants were also asked to provide pivotal life experiences (positive or negative) that shaped their fundamental approaches to leading other people.
Leadership Portraits are quite personal. They lead you into a space of emotional vulnerability and clarity about why you are here on Earth and what God needs for you to accomplish to become the servant leader He created you to be.
After each candidate presented his or her portrait, it was crystal clear whose values most aligned with the organization’s culture of servant leadership. The filter made their decision for them. And, it was a right decision.
If you are serious about building a culture of servant leadership, can you imagine embedding this filter into your hiring process?
I promise you that it will make your hiring decisions much clearer. You will consistently bring on the “right” people; professionals with the heart and mind for service.
Cultivate God’s magnetism in your organization.
People are attracted to companies for a wide variety of reasons. You may offer the benefits they need, the development they want, or the flexibility that makes their lives more manageable.
These tangible offerings will bring good people to your door. In return for these offerings, you can set a threshold on the skills you require in return. The more valuable your offerings, the better your chances of attracting the “right” people.
And yet…
The Holy Spirit is the most attractive force in the universe.
Are you leaning on the Holy Spirit to pull the people you want and need into your company?
There are many ways to invite God into your recruiting processes.
First, invite Jesus to be your leadership coach, through the Prayer of Receptiveness for Servant Leaders. You don’t have to optimize your hiring protocol alone. Jesus delights in hearing from you and going to work with you on your leadership challenges.
Second, develop a practice of never firing anyone, to keep your reputation “out on the street” pristine and positive. Your company’s servant leadership footprint extends far beyond your physical buildings. Through honoring this, you unleash the Holy Spirit to go to work on your behalf in the hearts and minds of people who may one day become your employees.
And the third is to draw support, energy, and focus from your community of servant leaders. To help you do this, I’ve launched a new LinkedIn group: Faith-Based Servant Leadership Coaching Community.
More than 90 leaders have joined so far, and the conversation is already vibrant.
I would be honored if you’d join us. When you do, we can learn and grow together.
Building a culture of servant leadership requires a dream team of servant leaders. That happens when you have a process of hiring the right people. What is your process to make that a reality?
Blessings,
By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established Proverbs 24:3
The best companies are those that recognize the components of their corporate culture as very strong, they think about how to capitalize on these strengths and make them even more visible to co-workers, or even for the customers and the people who come into contact with their brand from the outside. The best workplaces are excellent because they have not learned how to be someone else, but because they got an incredible success learning to be themselves at their best. In the workplace excellent, the shared values and cultural foundations are integrated in all processes – recruitment, communication, recognition, celebration, also in the process of dismissal. Moreover, they can act as a compass in difficult times and during the decision-making processes. Shared values provide is a sense of coherence, cohesion and determination throughout the organization. The sharing of the corporate culture also develops a sense of belonging. In addition, the… Read more »
The best companies are those that recognize the components of their corporate culture as very strong, they think about how to capitalize on these strengths and make them even more visible to co-workers, or even for the customers and the people who come into contact with their brand from the outside. The best workplaces are excellent because they have not learned how to be someone else, but because they got an incredible success learning to be themselves at their best.
In the workplace excellent, the shared values and cultural foundations are integrated in all processes – recruitment, communication, recognition, celebration, also in the process of dismissal. Moreover, they can act as a compass in difficult times and during the decision-making processes. Shared values provide is a sense of coherence, cohesion and determination throughout the organization. The sharing of the corporate culture also develops a sense of belonging.
In addition, the turnover is expensive, and it is important that companies do everything possible to select a person of talent in line with the company values. Select ie people for their expertise but also for the “cultural fit” with the company. Understand if the values of the candidate can be fully integrated into the everyday “tissue” of company. The best companies therefore have rigorous hiring processes that assess not only the skills and expertise, but above all the natural synergy of the candidate with the organization’s culture. Sometimes it is much better to hire a less qualified worker if you feel a strong cultural fit, knowing that the skills are something that can be acquired, while the culture no (or at least not always). Using the culture of the company as an additional screen for the selection process, we increase the possibility that new employees can quickly find their size and are fully integrated. In this way, it also meets the needs of existing collaborators, seen that that candidate will require less time to integrate into the work team. Not to mention that they add another person who can contribute to the success in their organization, because he / she shares the fundamental values.
Thanks so much for the outstanding additional context on the importance of a focus on culture and hiring for values. Blessings on the great work you are doing!
I love the way you describe authentic success. Thank you for adding so much relevant context to what Mark shared through his article.
We can never go wrong when we live our lives around this truth.
By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established Proverbs 24:3
Right on Jane! Blessings.